Me - a FOB...

I happened to attend a cross culture training recently... It was held by this lady who'd returned to India after being an NRI for 38 years!!! Quite a big deal, for a desi like me... I agree the India we see these days is still on its way, crawling towards improvement in multiple dimensions. But if given a choice of where I wanna spend the rest of my life, my India it is!!!

Anyways, this lady trainer introduced me to 2 new acronyms...
ABCD of an NRI.... That's short for American Born Confused Desi... That's what the Americans call the Indians settled in the US, it seems... :-)
And the other one's FOB... That's what the Americans call the newly arrived Indians onsite... It stands for Fresh Off the Boat...
Amusing isn't it...?

Coming to the fact that I attended the cross culture program only cos I'd be travellin to the US this weekend, it's my organization's way of preparing me for the culture shock that I am to recieve...

It made me wonder...
Do the Americans attend a cross culture program before they travel to India???

The rising Indian economy in the past decade, I'm sure, has been a cause of concern to the Americans. Also the outsourcing of jobs... We do their software, their customer care, their hardware and software maintainance and what not???!!! They might definitely worry we'll overtake them in the decade to come... No wonder they are so interested in learning each detail of what the Indians are upto... We won't be in for a surprise if the day comes when 1 rupee=40 dollars (despite how much the RBI try to reduce the appreciation of the rupee to avoid loss during money exchange). The Americans may want to try learning a thing or two from us... ;-)

Another amusing learning I got from the cross culture was that the US was dominated and ruled by the British once upon a time. I always knew that they celebrated their Independance day on the 4th of July, but I wonder why I never gave thought to who they got their independance back from...

The British seem to have dominated quite a few nations in the past. Domination is in their blood. WOW...

The blog seems to have headed elsewhere fom whereI started off...
Can't say I expected much of a better outcome from my first blog... :-) :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(United_States)